On Tuesday, the Japanese government has come out and said that it would start sanctions on Russia pushing its influence and recognizing a Crimean vote to secede from the Ukraine. On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree recognizing Crimea as an independent state following a referendum that resulted in a majority vote agreeing to join Russia. Governments all over the world – including the Group of Seven economic powers which Japan is a part of – has come out and condemned Moscow’s actions.

“It’s deplorable that Russia recognized the independence of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, a move that violates Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the Japanese foreign ministry said in a statement put out on Tuesday. “Japan will suspend negotiations on easing visa requirements, and will not begin talks on a new investment accord, an outer space accord and an accord aimed at preventing risky military activities,” the statement also added. Political observers have already expressed their curiosity on what Japan’s response might be, due to the recent warming of relations between the two countries. Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had already gone through a number of high profile meetings and summits, and there has been hope that a peace treaty between the two feuding countries would finally be signed.

“Japan urges Russia to understand the position held by the G7 (Group of Seven) world powers,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said in a press conference. Suga added that Japan “is, of course, thinking” about further sanction against Russia, but he did not elaborate on the details. Suga also disputed suggestions that Tokyo’s “lukewarm” sanctions – compared to its western partners’ travel bans and asset freezes against Russian and Ukraine officials – are evidence of Tokyo tiptoeing around the issue, still hoping to resolve a decades-old territorial dispute with Moscow. “That’s not the case,” Suga said. “Japan never overlooks an attempt to change the status quo through force.”

Comment Policy : Our comments section is open and welcome to anyone who wishes to participate in discussion or share their point of view, regardless of what it may be. In order to limit spam and those who wish to impede meaningful conversation, we are now requiring users to log in with an account or verify their email address. However, the following behavior will result in your comment being deleted or, if continued, permanent removal from conversations: posting under multiple names, making hateful/racist comments, or making no valuable contribution by posting the same thing repeatedly.

Bong

17032014 Strong weak and worst Leader of the World.

Put u tangle in net = Putin Great Leader with Iron Fist Power not from Right u self serve inside all = Russia

One Bad American Messing All = Obama no ball like Gay from Underwater States of Atlantic = USA and

Please Mention All bully express = PM Abe from Just all panic and naïve = Japan

I believe that just now several years of diplomatic effords have been thrown out of the window but whatever, in the end Japan will be the one who gets hurt. Or perhaps J.Gov. choice will have some unexpected positives but I doubt it. Also I don’t understand all this western dishonesty. Our governments don’t accept Crimean referendum and it’s annexation by Russia yet they accept Israel’s annexation of Golan Heights and Western Bank territories, they accepted secession of Kosovo which was no more legal than secession of Crimea yet they don’t care about Serbs left in Northern Kosovo who want to rejoin Serbia and say their claims are illegal. There are many other examples in history like that. In it;s history Russia too has been doing very nasty things but I came to understand that moral from the U.S point of view is mostly that what benefits U.S or also EU in this case. They don’t care about common people. Yet there are people, in Japan too, who think that U.S are paragons of peace. Who think that Maidan was only gathering of repressed idealists who were for 3 months living from the air only and that people like Timoshenko were just political prisoners and they celebrate their release. But the thing is that noone but very few in Ukrainian and for example in Slovakian politicians are clean and most of them would deserve to spend life in the jail but instead they enjoy their long lives with stolen money. Timoshenko “gas princess” was one of those unlucky who got what they deserved, even if real motive behind her imprisonment was political one, she was still criminal.

I don’t understand ? Did you just accuse me of belonging to KGB ? That’s ridiculous. As for article: I would call this particular situation as wolf accusing another wolf of tearing down the sheep while second wolf points out that first wolf did the same thing before. You seem to accuse people of belonging to KGB often…. you should try to be less paranoid. From your other comments I believe you are Ukrainian or pro Ukrainian. If so then you should already know that your new politicians deceived you. Instead of using divisions between U.S/EU and Russia for the good of Ukraine they chose radical shift to the west. In doing so + their other actions caused secession of Crimea and may cause complete break up of Ukraine. And yet you seem to support these people. Do you find them so much better than Yanukovich ? I know he was a criminal, I have seen how he lived while many of his people suffered but at least under him Ukraine was, at least on surface, united.

Feed & Social

JDP Info

About JDP

The task and mission of the Japan Daily Press is to engage Asia and the World with a never-ceasing flow of news and editorials on various facets of Japan. We plan to keep our readers up-to-date on Japanese politics, economy, society, and culture with our daily news.